Payday Lenders

October 15, 2014

Today, the Center for Justice & Democracy at New York Law School released a brand new study, “First Class Relief: How Class Actions Benefit Those Who Are Injured, Defrauded and Violated.” The study is a compilation of more than 150 recent class actions that have been litigated and settled since 2005. It's an examination of a wide array of cases, and I mean wide: cases involved predatory and discriminatory lending, like illegal auto finance and mortgage loan mark-ups, payday loans, unlawful practices targeting Servicemembers, and Ponzi schemes. Many race and gender employment discrimination class actions. Nine antitrust class action settlements that distributed over $1 billion to tens of thousands of consumers and small and medium-sized businesses from companies who participated in criminal price-fixing cartels! Wow.

Plus car defects and repossessions, sports tickets, film and television residuals, tainted pet food, contaminated drinking water, home decks and furnace defects, nursing home deficiencies, and health insurer abuses. CJ&D found overwhelming evidence that class actions have not only helped victims of corporate law-breaking but also led to changes in corporate behavior that protect us all from many types of illegal conduct.

The study comes in the midst of a great deal of activity aimed at fighting back against the increasing use of forced arbitration clauses and class action bans in consumer and employment contracts. Alliance for Justice has released a new film about this problem, entitled “Lost in the Fine Print,” narrated by former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. And a new petition effort asking five Wall Street banks to stop using forced arbitration clauses has already gathered tens of thousands of signatures in its first week.

We always knew that class action lawsuits were among the most important tools that cheated and violated individuals and small businesses have to recover stolen money, hold large corporations and institutions accountable and deter future misconduct. At last, the evidence – all in one place!

November 21, 2013

You may have heard that Sarah Palin is back. Last week, she gave an awesome speech about the “war on Christmas,” how the national debt is “going to be like slavery when that note is due,” and the new “church of big government.” At this point, we could make some jokes but since we’ll never be as funny as Bill Maher on a topic like Sarah Palin, we’ll leave the hilarity to professionals like him.

But on a perhaps more serious note, we would like to say something in support of the big federal government, which is not exactly a popular way to begin a conversation these days. Here are three examples of how the federal government makes us safer, all which we noticed in the news today:

"This action brings justice to the Cash America customers who were affected by illegal robo-signing, and shows that we will vigilantly protect the consumer rights that service members have earned," said Richard Cordray, the director of the bureau, also known as CFPB.

"We are also sending a clear message today to all companies under our watch that impeding a CFPB exam by destroying documents, withholding records and instructing employees to mislead examiners is unacceptable," he said.

On Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency forced six polluters, including Chrin Bros. “to pay the costs of monitoring groundwater pollution near a closed section of the Williams Township landfill” in Pennsylvania.

As a result of the disposal methods at the site, groundwater in the area became contaminated with lead, zinc, mercury, chromium, vinyl acetate and various solvents.…

The EPA also ordered Chrin to close and cap the landfill, and remove, treat and dispose of contaminated groundwater. The remediation effort was followed by long-term monitoring of the landfill and groundwater nearby, according to the lawsuit.

Thanks to efforts of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Kia Motors Corp. is recalling nearly 80,000 minivans in the U.S. because a suspension part can break and cause drivers to lose control of the vehicles." The recall affects Sedona minivans from 2006 through 2012, mostly in states where “salt is used to clear roads in the winter."

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